If you've ever been in the shower when somebody started the dishwasher or flushed the toilet, you'll understand the spacecraft testing planned for Cleveland's NASA Glenn Research Center.

A sudden water pressure drop is irritating when you have soap in your eyes. But if the plumbing in question is part of a rocket engine, and you're an astronaut who needs to get somewhere in a hurry -- to a higher orbit, say, or on the proper return trajectory to Earth -- a fuel flow problem can be a critical, even life-threatening, event.

So in a research lab on the Glenn campus, engineers have rigged a scaled-down, simplified version of the propulsion system planned for NASA's new Orion spacecraft. They're readying for a series of important tests this summer to ensure that when Orion's engines fire, they will produce the necessary, expected amounts of thrust.

View full sizeJoshua Gunter, The Plain DealerOrion crew and service module deputy manager Kathy Schubert and service module engineer Dean Petters stand in front of a “cold flow test rig” at the NASA Glenn Research Center. This summer, the equipment will be used to test the design of the propulsion system on Orion, NASA’s new spacecraft.The propulsion tests are part of Glenn's large and recently expanded role in developing Orion, which is intended to replace the space shuttle and carry astronauts to the International Space Station and on return voyages to the moon.

Working with NASA's Johnson Space Center, and prime contractor Lockheed Martin Corp., nearly 200 Glenn engineers and contractors are overseeing the design and testing of Orion's crew capsule and service module. The capsule is where the astronauts ride, while the service module houses vital fuel, communications, power and life-support systems.

There's just one problem: Orion is suddenly a spacecraft without a mission.

Obama wants commercial aerospace companies to take over the space station taxi duties. He has directed NASA to begin research on a long-range, heavy-lift rocket for deep space missions, but hasn't specified destinations or timetables. Obama may reveal more details at a Florida space conference April 15.

While Congress debates whether to endorse or overturn the president's new direction for NASA, Orion workers at Glenn and elsewhere -- a total of 4,300 nationwide -- are in limbo. They're pressing ahead with work on the $6.3 billion capsule project, aiming to have the first vehicle ready as soon as 2013 for a demonstration flight, but knowing that may never happen.

It's like running a marathon that could be scrubbed before the racers cross the finish line.

"We have major commitments to complete the work at hand, and right now we're trying not to be too distracted," said Kathy Schubert, the Glenn engineer who is deputy manager of Orion's crew and service modules. "It's the space business, so anything goes. Headquarters will figure that out. For the remainder of 2010, it's still heads-down, guys. We've got a lot of work on our plate."

View full sizeNASANASA's Ares I-X crew rocket lifts off in its first test flight.That work has not gotten as much public attention as the Glenn center's construction of a simulated second stage for the highly publicized test flight last fall of Constellation's Ares I-X rocket. But Glenn's Orion responsibilities are larger, and will have a direct impact on future astronauts' safety and mission success -- assuming the program survives.

The assignments take advantage of the center's deep engineering skills in rocket engines, electrical power, cooling equipment and other complex space mechanical systems.

Orion resembles the spacecraft that carried Apollo astronauts to the moon 40 years ago, but inside and out it's substantially different.

First, it's much larger. Orion's capsule has about 50 percent more room than Apollo's. That's a good thing, since the cabin must accommodate four astronauts (one more than Apollo), on lunar missions lasting as long as seven months compared with Apollo's 12-day flights.

Also, Orion's propulsion, navigation and other systems are far more advanced, enabling the spacecraft to fly itself when delivering cargo to the space station, or while crews work on the moon's surface.

A lot of that equipment resides in the service module, the rounded, rocket-studded spacecraft segment that nestles below the crew capsule.

View full sizeWilliam Neff, The PDLockheed Martin is building Orion for NASA; in addition to co-managing the project with the Johnson Space Center, Glenn's job is to independently test various systems and components, especially those in the service module, to make sure they're designed properly and perform as intended.

"Lockheed has their own system analysis team doing the same thing," said Glenn engineer Dean Petters. "The goal is, when we get back together and compare the data, we get the same answers. If we don't, we have to go back and question what's going on here, what do we not understand that we need to look at."

Much of the current work at Glenn involves verifying the design of the propulsion system that's supposed to keep Orion in the proper orbit around the moon and guide its return to Earth.

The system's fuel tanks and piping feed three types of thrusters. There's the powerful main engine that's Orion's primary driver, eight auxiliary engines that serve as backups, and 16 small engines for minor course corrections.

Apollo had separate tanks and piping for each engine type. Orion's unified approach saves valuable space, but is more complex to control. High-speed valves must route fuel to whichever engine or combination of engines Orion needs for a particular maneuver. In an emergency, all three types may all have to fire simultaneously.

"You have to make sure they get the propellant they're expecting," Petters said. "The system won't work if we lose half the performance. Imagine trying to turn on a faucet in your house when they're flushing the hydrant outside. It doesn't work."

View full sizeNASALater this year, Lockheed Martin workers expect to finish a test-production model, known as a "ground test article," of the Orion crew capsule at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.Opening and closing the valves at the right time and in the right sequence is critical if the engines are to fire properly, and to prevent damage. Out-of-sync valves can cause fuel pressure to spike. That, in turn, can spring dangerous propellant leaks, or even blow an engine off the end of a fuel line like an exploding champagne cork.

To make sure they understand how Orion's propulsion system will behave, Glenn engineers have built a small-scale version of the real thing, with valves scavenged from an Air Force spacecraft, and tanks and piping, all hung from a shiny metal scaffold.

This summer, they will spurt water through the rig to simulate fuel flow, while slamming the valves open and closed at high pressure to see how well the system works. They will compare results to predictions from a computer model, and recommend any necessary design fixes.

Elsewhere at Glenn, engineers have worked on radiators to keep the crew cabin cool. They have tested coatings meant to prevent dangerous static electricity buildup on Orion's solar panels. They have proposed dampers that would limit stress on the solar panels' joints as the spacecraft is accelerating. They have evaluated the rubber ring that forms an airtight seal when Orion docks with the space station. And they have studied how well the capsule withstands turbulence when its emergency abort rockets fire.

View full sizeLockheed MartinEngineers will test Orion launch abort system this spring. The emergency rockets are in the tall spire above the capsule. To see a video of what the test will look like, click here.

Testing that abort system will be Orion's next major milestone. The thrusters are meant to push the crew capsule out of harm's way if there's a malfunction during takeoff. This spring, at the Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the abort rockets will shoot a dummy capsule about a mile above the desert in Orion's first flight test.

Later this year, Lockheed Martin should finish the first Orion test-production model, Cleon Lacefield, vice president and Orion program manager, said via e-mail. It will be checked out at the Glenn Center's Plum Brook testing station in Sandusky. Inside the newly upgraded facility, the spacecraft will be shaken, blasted with sound, roasted and frozen to mimic the harsh conditions of liftoff and orbit.

Orion is so far along that Lacefield predicts with an accelerated schedule it could be ready as early as 2013 for demonstration flights, two years sooner than expected.

That presumes the Constellation Program escapes cancellation, and that NASA's still-in-development Ares I rocket is available to carry the spacecraft aloft.

Some powerful lawmakers with NASA centers in their districts are pushing to keep Constellation alive. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas introduced legislation March 3 that would require NASA to continue work on Orion and its Ares I launcher.

Others have suggested that, as a way of salvaging some of taxpayers' money and NASA's development efforts, a modified Orion could ride on a commercially built rocket.

View full sizeMarvin Fong, The Plain DealerNASA is spending more than $150 million to upgrade the Plum Brook Station in Sandusky in preparation for testing of the Orion spacecraft. To see a video about the testing, click here.

"There's lots of opportunities for things that have been invested in to [still] be utilized," said Jim Muncy of XCOR Aerospace, a California commercial space firm. "Lockheed Martin could very well turn around and say, you know, if we were allowed the flexibility to come up with cost-saving approaches, we could do a version of Orion on a fixed-price basis, with a commercial crew."

Even if Orion and the rest of the Constellation Program dies, Jim Free, the center's director of space flight systems, figures that Glenn's work has earned respect and a major part in future space flight projects, whatever they are.

"I think we've seen it develop in our partnerships with the big [NASA] centers, . . . the dependence of them on our engineering and programmatic skills to get some critical work done," Free said. "I think we've met and exceeded the expectations of the folks handing out those assignments."

Joshua Gunter, The Plain DealerThis banner on the exterior of a wind tunnel building at Cleveland’s NASA Glenn Research Center celebrates the facility's role in the Constellation Program. The Orion spacecraft and Ares rockets are supposed to carry astronauts to the International Space Station, the moon and Mars.

Follow Us

cleveland.com is powered by Plain Dealer Publishing Co. and Northeast Ohio Media Group. All rights reserved (About Us).The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Northeast Ohio Media Group LLC.